The Crumby Vegan in Hong Kong

March 25, 2019

#ILOVEHK

Yep, Hong Kong happened. Vegan Hong Kong happened. And it was mega.

On the way back from visiting Wonderful Husband’s family in Auckland (blog post coming in two weeks time!) we stopped off in Hong Kong to visit one of Wonderful Husband’s best friends, Mega Friend Martin.

We stayed in the region of Sheung Wan which is one of many amazing areas of this beautiful city/country/who knows. We only had three days to explore Hong Kong so I could only visit a fraction of the restaurants that I wanted to. Therefore this won’t be a super extensive vegan list of places to eat in Hong Kong, but it sure will be yummy. Enjoy!

We started off our HK foodie trip in the best possible way: walking into a dodgy looking building, entering a smelly lift and up a few (hundred) floors, the doors open up into a super, alternative and industrial-like room filled with mirrors. Then you’ll enjoy life because Mirror & Vegan Concept is mega.

If you do decide to dine at this restaurant (you totally should!), get ready for Italian food to never be the same again. Mirror & Vegan Concept have perfected pasta.

We chose the set menu which comprised of a salad, soup (with yummy garlic bread) and then a main of your choice. I chose a four cheese pasta bake and I can’t describe to you guys how much I’m missing this dish (I need to get control of my emotions!). Wonderful Husband chose mushroom linguine (I think that’s what it was) and Mega Friend Martin chose spaghetti bolognese. Both (non-vegans) thought the food was incredibly authentic and would happily eat there again. However, I would happily eat there a million times.

After lunch, Mega Friend Martin wanted to chill out somewhere and have a coffee, so he took us to his favourite hangout, Mana! Fast Slow Food. After a big lunch I couldn’t stomach much, but after seeing Mana’s chocolate chip cookie, I had to make room. My cookie was yummy and Wonderful Husband’s slice of coconut cake was delicious. There were so many more things I wanted to try on this menu so I can totally understand why Mega Friend Martin enjoys hanging out here.

After eating a big lunch (and side snacks) we went for dinner quite late in the evening and although Grassroots Pantry were closing at 23:00 they were more than happy to allow us to come in at 22:10. Thank you Grassroots Pantry!

We had to order quick (understandably) which helped me out as there were so many things I could have eaten. I chose gyozas to start and ravioli for my main. Both were fab although both Mega Friend Martin and I agreed that we would have liked bigger portions and if we had time we would have ordered more food.

A big thanks to the staff at Grassroots Pantry for being super lovely considering that we were keeping them from closing and going home.

Being in Hong Kong I didn’t want to eat pasta the whole time (even though I totally could) and Wonderful Husband is a MASSIVE dim sum lover, so we decided to go for a true dim sum experience at LockCha Tea House. I went with the attitude that either I would destroy the food or the food would destroy me (true quote).

We got there just as the tea house was opening and as advised online, I told the waitress that I was vegan. At first this seemed to be a problem but after speaking with the chef they were super helpful and marked down everything on the menu that I could eat (clickhereto check out a list of what you can eat). Desserts were not vegan.

We ordered soooo many dishes (as one does when eating dim sum) and I would highly recommend everyone to head to this tea house if they are looking for a vegan dim sum challenge. I loved this place and the food definitely defeated me although we didn’t leave anything unfinished but I could barely move afterwards. The tea is stunning (it blossoms in the hot water) and my absolute favourite dish was the bean curd (bottom right photo), it is amazing!

Side note: A few months ago Mega Friend Bayan gifted me some money and ordered me to use it on something mega that would make me happy (what a great friend, right?!?!). I chose to use the money for this meal so a big thank you goes to her for all the happiness (and deliciousness!) that Wonderful Husband and I experienced at LockCha Tea House.

We headed over to Kowloon on our second afternoon in Hong Kong to check out a few areas (would highly recommend checking out Mong Kok, The Ladies Market, Temple Market, TST – as Mega Friend Martin calls it, etc.). We arrived early in preparation for the ‘famous’ light show that happens every day at 20:00 (don’t waste your time lol).

Hong Kong: if you would me to design a better light show then feel free to get in touch here. I’ll even do it for free 😉

So before the best-thing-you’ll-ever-see-ever light show, we stopped off for some dinner at 2DP. There was nothing on the menu that really caught my eye except for a bacon sandwich but they stopped serving that particular dish after 18:00 and it was 18:50 – damn. So I opted for the Impossible burger.

Big mistake.

I wanted to give the burger a try because I hadn’t had a chance to try this kind of plant-based meat before. The only problem is that I’ve struggled with eating beef-like products since going pescatarian over 10 years ago, so as expected I really didn’t like the burger but this wasn’t the restaurant’s fault at all. Wonderful Husband liked his burger but did say he thought it was a bit overpriced.

Then we ordered dessert because 2DP is rated super highly for desserts. I chose taro balls with tofu pudding and to be honest, I hated it. Again I don’t think this was a restaurant issue, I just think I didn’t choose the right dishes for me. Wonderful Husband had a cashew and tofu pudding which he thought was quite nice but wouldn’t have again.

Overall the staff were super friendly and the food came out pretty quick. They were also very happy to change my burger when I stated that I didn’t like tomato ketchup (the devil’s sauce!) so I would go back to this restaurant, but I would get there before 18:00 and try their bacon sandwich 🙂

One of my top picks for Hong Kong food is most definitely LN Fortunate Coffee. The food here makes me want to move to Hong Kong.

We came here for breakfast on our final day of the trip and ordered bean-curd scramble with sausage and sweet toast (O.M.G) and then a barbecue-pork-noodle-soup thing (Wonderful Husband described it this way because I can’t remember the real name) which was super tasty and I definitely don’t remember pork tasking that good before I gave it up.

The restaurant had cute little cupcakes in the display shelf so I couldn’t leave without trying one. I chose a green tea cupcake and it partnered perfectly with my pretty caramel latte.

I genuinely can’t get over this place and it is definitely a must visit if you’re in Hong Kong.

Our final food stop in Hong Kong was Kind Kitchen. This place was super friendly and incredibly clean. Their menu was quite diverse and I was super excited to see that they offered a Beyond Meat hotdog, another type of plant-based meat that I hadn’t tried before.

The hotdog was yummy (actually, super yummy!) and Wonderful Husband loved his avocado super bowl. Again, the staff were very understanding and happy to change my hotdog after they added tomato ketchup (what is Hong Kong’s obsession with tomato ketchup?!).

For dessert we shared some French Toast in the shape of cuboids (loved that!). We left this restaurant feeling completely fulfilled and ready for the long journey home.

Just incase it helps: Hong Kong airport didn’t have many vegan options at all so I ended up having a packet of ready salted crisps. This is definitely something to take into account.

After such a fantastic trip, I am genuinely so excited to head back to Hong Kong in the not-so-far future. Thanks to Mega Friend Martin for being the perfect tour guide on this trip and also big thanks go to my parents-in-law for the new camera they gave me whilst we were in Auckland (my photos of food are a lot better now!).

Thanks for reading and get in touch if you’d like any tips regarding vegan food in Hong Kong 💚

I have always wanted to try the tea that blossoms as you pour the water on it. Looks like you had a lovely time in Hong Kong! The food looks absolutely delicious and I enjoyed your descriptions of the experience 🙂

Wow, Hong Kong has some great eats! But that’s no surprise as it’s one of the foodie capitals in the world. It’s definitely on our bucket list, so when we get there, we’ll have to visit some of these places you’ve recommended, especially the burger place. It’s hard to find a good plant based burger where I live.

Ah, you went to my home town. I’m from the Kowloon side and lived in the Prince Edward district, next to Mong Kok. I haven’t been back in 20 years, but I do remember the food being amazing, as well as the shopping. I’m glad you were able to find a few vegan places!

Gosh I am so jealous that you were born in Hong Kong – one of the most amazing places on this planet (in my opinion). So impressed and the vegan food is incredible there, I’m sure it would be quite different the next time you go back 💚

Oh gosh you’ll love vegan restaurants in that case as you’ll be able to choose anything you like, rather than going to a non-vegan restaurant and only having a few dishes to choose from. I’m excited for you, haha! Fab that you’ve gone veggie btw 💚